A man abducted by his grandparents at the age of five and found 19 years later has defended their crime saying they were 'in the right' to remove him from his mother's care.

Michael Jeff Landers, now 24, changed his name from Richard Wayne Landers Jr. at the age of 18, it has now been revealed.

His grandparents fled with him during a custody dispute with his mother, Lisa Hartner in July 1994 from Wolcottville, Indiana.

Authorities reopened the case in September and using his
social security number determined Landers to be the abducted
Indiana child.

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New man: Pictured outside his home in Browerville, Minnesota Michael Jeff Landers faced reporters as a 24-year-old

But a posting, believed to be from Landers' Facebook account, has defended the grandparents who raised him.

The message to the Minneapolis
television station KARE's Facebook page, said: 'For you people who jump
to conclusions you should find out the whole story I was where I needed
to be. My `grandparents' were in the the right I don't care what anyone
else thinks.'

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Pictured for the first time on Friday, Landers is now married and the couple are expecting their first child in Browerville, Minnesota.

They are delighted by the prospect of being parents themselves - posting ultrasound pictures of their unborn baby on Facebook.

Adding to Landers comments on his grandparents, a Facebook account for Bobby Landers, thought to be Michael's wife agreed that they had done 'what was right'.

Baby: Michael Landers and his wife, Bobby, are now expecting their own child. Facebook posts believed to have come from the couple defended Landers' grandparents

'His
"grandparents" didn't follow the law, but they did what was right.
Sometimes, our US laws don't help or protect the people they should. He
was 5. He remembers his birth parents and what they were like,' it said.

'He had been living under his
grandparents care since he was a 6 month old baby. He was where he
wanted and needed to be to be safe and become the man he is today, my
husband and best friend.'

Landers shares a plot of land with
his grandparents in Minnesota. Speaking outside his home on Friday, he
said he was overwhelmed by all the attention his story had generated.

Sheriff Peter Mikkelson said the
investigation is ongoing and the case will be forwarded to federal
authorities for possible charges.

According to court records, Landers
applied for the name change himself in November 2006. The application
doesn't say why he requested the change, and it wasn't immediately clear
how long he had used the name Michael.

Long lost family: Michael Jeff Landers' biological mother Lisa Harter is seen, left, she has been described as entirely ecstatic at the news of her son's discovery after losing him at the age of five, right

Found: Landers' new home on property shared with his grandparents in Browerville is seen after his social security number led authorities to uncover his true identity

'For you people who jump to conclusions
you should find out the whole story I was where I needed to be. My
"grandparents" were in the the right I dont care what anyone else
thinks'

- Facebook user identifying himself as Michael Landers

Landers' mother and stepfather were
unemployed and lived in a car at the time, recalled John R. Russell, who spent
several months investigating the disappearance with the LaGrange County
Sheriff's Department in Indiana.

'These
people (the grandparents) were nice people. It was wrong for them to do
it, but I can understand why,' Russell said. 'But I also didn't think
the child would be in any danger at all with them.'

An attorney for Landers' mother, Richard Muntz,
refuted claims that she was homeless at the time. He said she spent
only three days living in a car and it was with Landers' biological
father.

Better off: In a Facebook posting by a man claiming to be him, Landers writes his grandparents having been 'in the right' for taking him from his life with his mother at the age of five

His parents obtained custody after Harter moved into a group home that could not accommodate children, Muntz said.

'These
people (the grandparents) were nice people. It was wrong for them to do
it, but I can understand why'

- Investigator John R. Russell

After a while, she moved into an apartment and gained custody of her son on weekends, and she filed a petition to expand her custody rights when she remarried.

'The judge gave her custody on a trial
basis, and before she could get him, that's when they left,' Muntz added.

He said the grandparents withdrew $5,000 out of a home equity line, went out for breakfast and left town.

'The trail on this case went cold the day they disappeared. There was no trace of them after they left the restaurant,' he said.

'We always just kept it in the back
of our minds that we believed we were going to see him again,' said
Richard Landers Sr, who was speaking to KAREafter hearing the news.

'Until I get to actually walk up and say hello to him again, I don't know if it's going to be real,' he added.

He has also said that he hopes to re-establish contact with his parents.

Overjoyed: Richard Landers Sr has spoken of his relief that his son has been found. He says he hopes to re-establish contact with both his son and his parents

The grandparents were charged with misdemeanor interference with custody, which was bumped up to a felony in 1999. But the charge was dismissed in 2008 after the case went cold.

Investigators reopened the case in September after a conversation between Richard Harter, Lisa Harter's husband, and an Indiana State Police detective who attended the same church prompted another search of Landers' Social Security number.

That turned up a man with the same number and birthday with an address in Long Prairie, about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Indiana State Police then contacted Minnesota law enforcement agencies, which began investigating along with the FBI and the Social Security Administration.

Minnesota officials say the grandparents - now living under the assumed names Raymond Michael Iddings and Susan Kay Iddings - verified Landers' identity. They were known as Richard E. and Ruth A. Landers at the time of the abduction.

Now that Landers has been located, his mother is eager to talk to him, but that hasn't happened yet, Muntz said.

Vanished: In 1994 Richard Wayne Lander Jr disappeared at the age of five from Wolcottville, Indiana before he was found 19 years later at the age of 24 living in Minnesota

'What we're trying to do now is try to establish a way for Lisa and young Richard to get reacquainted,' the attorney said.

A spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's office in Minnesota, Jeanne Cooney, said charges in such a case could be related to non-custodial kidnapping, whether the child was exploited, abused, trafficked or being used to obtain benefits.

Landers works at an auto parts store in Long Prairie, but wasn't at the store Friday and an employee declined an interview.

Raymond Iddings has worked since 1999 as a herdsman at Twin Eagle Dairy in nearby Clarissa, where owner Patrick Lunemann described him as a 'dedicated, faithful' employee. Lunemann said he was in shock when he read a story about the case.

He said Iddings plays guitar at his church, and recalled a day last summer when the couple brought their instruments to play for dairy workers. He said he knew Michael slightly, saying he stopped in occasion - perhaps to drop off Iddings' lunch if he had forgotten it.

'(Landers) works at an auto parts place. That fits him perfectly, because Ray is kind of a motorhead and Michael is the same way,' Lunemann said.

The town buzzed with the news, though. Rich Wall, a retired jeweler, said some residents speculated that some people knew of Landers' history but kept quiet. He said it was the most notable news since a grisly triple homicide there in 2003.

'My grandson called last night and said, `Long Prairie made the news again,'' Wall said.